It hit me the next day of what I just did. I just signed up for a 100 miler. I had very mixed (still do) about the goal I put in front of myself. I'm constantly battling thoughts of; "Am I REALLY ready for this?" "Am I doing too much"? "What if I fail"? A friend of mine has attempted Kettle100 last year, and this is a friend who easily out runs me every day of the week. However, he was forced to DNF because of the difficulty of the course. Not a huge confidence boost for me. I reached out to my Trail and Ultra Running group and same deal... people have attempted but I still have not had a response from someone who has completed it. I then went to the race blogs. I read many success stories of runners who were able to cross the finish line, and they all had very big similarities: unbreakable mental grit.
It was really hard for me to believe that trails in southern Wisconsin can really be so difficult that they are causing ultrarunners to DNF. I found a half marathon that was on the same course as 1/7th of Kettle. I immediately signed up to investigate what I had gotten myself into.
Right before the race started, I received a panicked phone call from my grandmother that my grandfather was having severe setbacks with his dementia. I immediately turned around, then back around when my mother told me she was coming up to help. My grandfather raised me when I was little while my mom was deployed and when my father left. I had just completely lost focus on this race, but figured that it was only 13 miles...My plan was just to get it over with and quickly drive up to be there for my grandfather.
I arrived and immediately knew I was going to have issues with the weather. It was the type of weather that was absolutely freezing to start running in, but I couldn't tell by the wind if it was going to be easy to warm up or not. I decided to go with my thermal gear and windbreaker as I was wearing shorts. I also bought my camelback... for reasons that are still unknown to me.
The race consisted of a 5K, 10K, and a 1/2 marathon. I had absolutely no idea who was actually running the half, so that completely threw me off when the race started. People were passing me, doing 6 minute sprints right off the bat, and I just prayed those weren't the half marathoners. I decided to quit worrying about other people and just go at my own pace. I ran a 8/min mile to start off with as I was in hill paradise right away. The hills were small and constantly ascending... after about mile SIX, I had enough of that crap. I decided to quit sprinting up them and either do a fast walking pace up the hill or a slow jog. I also was dripping with sweat. I immediately took off my camelback and thermal which gave me some speed back. This decision really helped me keep a surge in me, just in case I was about to run into some serious competition... which is exactly what happened.
When I was on mile 8, I began to be running by myself. I was convinced I was completely lost as I stopped seeing trail markings and not recognizing anything around me (the course was two laps). I ran into some hikers who confirmed my fears. They said I was only about 2 miles off course (WHAT?!?). I immediately started sprinting back to the course and found myself with the second place woman. I upped my speed to a high 6/min mile and bolted. As I kept looking behind me, as I knew we were reaching close to the end, I completely biffed head first into the ground (are we seeing a common habit in these posts... im the queen of falling on my ass or face). As I got back up, I knew she was going to win. I was about a mile away from the course, and I ran as fast as I could until I hit the finish line.
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2nd place overall Women
2:02
11th overall
1st age group
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